Hypercompendia

What’s so great about going through six months’ worth of postings on a particular topic is that it is much like getting together with a pal and reliving some great times you’ve spent together.

In reading through on my work with Storyspace and Hypertextopia that produced some of my best writing to-date, I’m enjoying the adventure of it all but validating my opinion that the hypertext format is something that–like the structure of poetry–has had a distinct influence on my writing style.

In returning to linear narrative for a creative writing course, I find that phrases come more easily, stories invent themselves, characters do whatever the hell they want to do and I can’t stop them because…because the paths of hypertext allowed them their reasoning behind their motives.  The visual text box imposes a limit of sorts on how much should be told.  Yes, those boxes stretch to any length and width, but the environment seeks some form of organization and even the simple matter of keeping the boxes similar in size makes a point.  For example, a well-filled writing space usually indicates an action or vital informational segment of story.  A few sentences–or just a single one–makes not only a dramatic point that lets the sentence stand out by itself, the visual of it floating alone like an old bullfrog on a lily pad gives it its deep bellowing impact.

We often don’t know how we progress as writers; it is a gradual thing that someone else may comment upon that makes us look back and discover the footprints in the trail.  Well, as I look back, I see some mother tracks in the dirt just behind me.